388 



GEORGIA. 



of personal property of railroads located partly within 

 this State and partly in another State. The realty 

 and the personalty located in this State must, of ne- 

 cessity, be taxed in this State. But much of the per- 

 sonal property of such railroads is located in this, or 

 another State, only by reason of the rule of law which 

 fixes the situs of personalty at the domicile of the 

 owner ; or in case of a railroad, where its principal 

 office is located. In practice a difficulty arises, be- 

 cause adjoining States claim the right to tax such pro- 

 portion of the entire personalty as the number of 

 miles of railroad located within their limits bears to 

 the whole number of miles in both States. This would 

 seem to be the rule of convenience, as well as of jus- 

 tice, and I recommend its adoption. 



The subject of taxation can not engage too much of 

 your attention. Equality and uniformity are substan- 

 tially secured, in theory, under our system. But ex- 

 perience proves that our laws for ascertaining the 

 property liable for taxation, and its value, are defect- 

 ive ; its aggregate value being largely in excess of 

 the annuarreturns. . . . We collect from the people 

 of Georgia, for State and county purposes annually, 

 less than one dollar and twenty -five cents per capita. 



There were passed at this session an act to 

 redistrict the State for congressional purposes, 

 and an act prohibiting the running of Sunday 

 excursion-trains. Among bills which failed to 

 pass were those providing for tax-assessors, 

 establishing a school of technology, and the 

 general dog law. The general temperance bill 

 failed to pass, but more than seventy special 

 temperance bills passed. The congressional 

 districts consist of the following counties : 



1. Chatham, Effingham, Scriven, Emanuel. Bul- 

 lock, Bryan, ^ Tatnall, Liberty. Mclntosh, Glynn, 

 Wayne, Appling, Pierce, Camden, Charlton, Ware, 

 Clinch, Echols. ' 



2. Baker, Berrien, Brooks, Calhoun, Clay, Colquitt, 

 Decatur, Dougherty, Early, Lowndes, Miller, Mitch- 

 ell, Quitman, Randolph, Terrell, Thomas, Worth. 



3. Coffee, Dodge, Dooly, Irwin, Telfair, Montgom- 

 ery, Laurens, Pulaski, Wilcox, Houston, Macon, Sum- 

 ter, Schley, Webster, Stewart, Lee. 



4. Taylor, Talbot, Marion, Chattahoochee, Musco- 

 gee, Harris, Heard, Troup, Meriwether, Coweta, Car- 

 roll. 



5. Clayton, De Kalb, Fayette, Fulton, Henry, New- 

 ton, Bockdale, Spalding, Walton, Campbell, Douglas. 



6. Bibb, Crawford, Upson, Pike, Monroe, Twiggs, 

 Wilkinson, Jones, Baldwin, Butts, Jasper. 



7. Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Bade, Cobb, Floyd, 

 Gordon, Whitfield, Murray, Polk, Paulding, Haral- 

 BOD, Walker. 



8. Hancock. Putnam, Greene, Morgan, Oconee, 

 Clarke, Oglethorpe, Wilkes, Elbert, Madison, Hart, 

 Franklin. 



9. Banks, Cherokee, Dawson, Fannin, Forsyth, 

 GUmer, Gwinnett, Hall, Habersham, Jackson, Lump- 

 kin, Milton, Pickens, Eabun, Towns, Union, White. 



10. Johnson, Jefferson, Burke, Glasscock, McDuf- 

 fie, Richmond, Columbia, Lincoln, Washington, War- 

 ren, Taliaferro. 



Acts were also passed as follow : 



Appropriating money for completing and furnish- 

 ing the State Lunatic Asylum ; providing for the erec- 

 tion of a State Capitol "building ; providing that all 

 property owned by any railroad corporation of the 

 State not used by it in carrying on its usual and ordi- 

 nary business, shall be taxable by the counties and 

 municipal corporations in which such property is 

 situated; providing that all railroad companies operat- 

 ing railroads lying partly in Georgia and partly in 

 other States shall be taxed on so much of the whole 

 value of the rolling-stock and other personal property 

 appurtenant thereto as is proportional to the length 



of the railroad in Georgia ; and providing a more cor- 

 rect and efficient mode of taking the enumeration of 

 the school population. 



Finances. Following are the receipts and dis- 

 bursements from Sept. 5, 1882, to Sept. 6, 1883 : 



Balance in Treasury Sept. 5, 1882 $788,472 67 



Paid in last quarter of 1881 727,506 48 



Paid in first quarter of 1 882 683,202 27 



Paid in second quarter of 1882 144,869 20 



Paid in third quarter of 1882 188,699 86 



Paid in fourth quarter of 1882 688,825 22 



Paid in first quarter of 1883 365,217 54 



Paid in second quarter of 1883 175,764 90 



Paid in fractional third quarter of 1883 106,805 95 



Total $3,754,363 49 



Paid out last quarter of 1881 $539,490 81 



Paid out first quarter of 1882 123,765 08 



Paid out second quarter of 1882 731,417 16 



Paid out third quarter of 1882 387,804 68 



Paid out fourth quarter of 1882 117,188 41 



Paid out first quarter of 1888 500,916 4S 



Paid out second quarter of 1 883 553,505 89 



Paid out fractional third quarter of 1683 100,855 50 



Total $3,054,944 02 



Sept. 6, 1883 -Balance in Treasury on this date. $699,419 47 



The increase in the taxable property in the 

 State is very marked. This increase in 1882, 

 over 1881, was more than $16,250,000. The 

 increase in 1883 over 1882 was $19,535,488. 

 The total taxable value in 1883 was $306,784,- 

 891. The increase in railroad property was 

 $3,284,187. 



The most notable increase in any section of 

 the State is in the three most prominent truck- 

 growing counties, Lowndes, Burke, and Thom- 

 as, their gain aggregating $775,000. 



The total recognized bonded debt of the State 

 is $9,445,500. The bonds bear interest at the 

 rates as follow : $6.547,500 bear interest at 

 the rate of 7 per cent. ; $2,598,000 bear inter- 

 est at the rate of 6 per cent. ; and $300,000 

 bear interest at the rate of 8 per cent. 



The principal of the debt falls due as fol- 

 lows: 1886, $4,000.000; 1889, $2,298,000; 

 1890, $2,098,000 ; 1892, $307,500 ; 1896, $342,- 

 000; 1884, $100,000; 1885, $100,000. Of the 

 Nutting or 8 per cent, bonds but $300,000 re- 

 main to be paid. Of this amount $100,000 

 matures yearly and the interest on the pub- 

 lic debt is yearly diminished by the interest on 

 $100,000 $8,000, to and including the year 

 1886, when the last of these bonds mature. 



Agriculture. In 1882 the State yielded, accord- 

 ing to the estimates of its Department of Agri- 

 culture, the following leading products, with the 

 following value : 



Cotton, 941,866 bales, worth for the lint $40,000*.000, 

 and for the 500,000 tons of seed $4,000,000. 



Oats, 11,643,482 bushels at 57 cents a bushel, worth 

 $6,632,000. 



Wheat, 3,500,000 bushels at $1.25, worth $4,375,000. 



Corn, 36,963,940 bushels at 66 cents, worth $24,- 

 396,000. 



During the truck-season of 1883, Georgia 

 raised about 6,250,000 melons, of which there 

 were sent to market all but 1,000,000, which 

 were consumed on the farms, fed to stock, or 

 wasted. This crop, supplemented by the vege- 

 table crop, paid the farmers about $250,000, 

 which may be considered a surplus above the 



